Data Visceralization: The Materiality of Quantified Reality

This modern existence is complicated and messy. The constant attempt to quantify life by reducing every element to numbers and charts is a double-edged sword. Data can teach us

about the way that nature operates, and provides us with tools for leading better lives but it can also drain us of our humanity by diminishing the validity of our emotions in an attempt to categorize what is ultimately uncategorizable. This inherent conflict makes data a volatile material to work with. The line between literacy and intuition, communication and sensation are played against each other as artists apply data-sets and real-time data streams to their digital works. In interactive art, one can participate in the expression and experience of that data, even manipulate and control it, becoming part of the artwork as they offer it their quantified reality.

Evan Tedlock is an Assistant Professor of Animation at the Kansas City Art Institute. He uses animation and digital interactivity as a tool to explore the invisible narratives of big and small data. Evan received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California where he was an Annenberg Graduate Fellow and co-founder of the Bridge Art and Science Alliance. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally including at the V2 Lab for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, The Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore, and the New World Symphony in Miami.

His research focuses on data-driven, immersive, interactive experiences, exploring environmental issues and the human experience.